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Cornell University, Society for the Humanities: Sound

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For 2011-12 I will be a Fellow at Cornell University's Society for the Humanities, as part of a group of people researching and discussing the topic of sound.  You can read about my own project, Sound and Popular Discipline, 1950 - Present, here.  Basically I'm interested in understanding what kinds of new forms of community emerge around the production of globally distributed new dance musics such as hip-hop or house, and what particular qualities of the sound-world they draw on.  How can people be together through the way they participate in making and listening to sound?  How does this change when digital sound making technologies are used? And how does this change when these sound making and listening technologies are globally distributed to so that anyone might participate in making or sharing them?

The first semester was great: I think we're all recognizing how vast the study of sound is as a discipline -- we've had presentations on everything from popular song in the Egyptian revolution of 1919, to Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man", to Cuban radio, to Thoreau's nature-sound.  More to come, including a sound studies conference in April.

Cutting Across Media: Appropriation Art, Interventionist Collage and Copyright Law

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I have an essay in a new book from Duke UP, Cutting Across Media: Appropriation Art, Interventionist Collage and Copyright Law, edited by intellectual property theorist and prankster Kembrew McLeod and dada scholar Rudi Kuenzli. The essay, “Digital Mana: On the Infinite Proliferation of Mutant Copies in Contemporary Culture” is a pretty freewheeling spin through the work of Philip K. Dick and the late great graffiti sage Rammellzee, amongst others … taking the position that countercultures in the late twentieth century are very much concerned with the concept of infinity and how human beings can access it. I apply some of Alain Badiou’s work on the politics of how we think about infinity to some examples that probably Badiou would not be interested in. But I am! Generally speaking, it’s a great collection, with work by Siva Vaidhyanathan, Joshua Clover, Douglas Kahn, Craig Baldwin, Jeff Chang, Jonathan Lethem and many others ….

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Introduction to Erik Davis' Nomad Codes

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I wrote a loving introduction to my pal Erik Davis'  Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica out now from Mike McGonigal's Yeti Books.  The book collects some of Erik's visionary writings from the last twenty years including some of his work for the late and lamented Gnosis magazine, reminiscences of a SoCal stoner youth, meditations on Philip K. Dick, Sun City Girls, Terence McKenna and other key figures.  You can read the introduction here. 

In Praise of Copying

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My second full length book, In Praise of Copying, was published by Harvard University Press in Fall 2010. The book is devoted to a deceptively simple but original argument: that copying is an essential part of being human, that the ability to copy is worthy of celebration, and that, without recognizing how integral copying is to being human, we cannot understand ourselves or the world we live in.

In spite of the laws, stigmas, and anxieties attached to it, the word “copying” permeates contemporary culture, shaping discourse on issues from hip hop to digitization to gender reassignment, and is particularly crucial in legal debates concerning intellectual property and copyright. Yet as a philosophical concept, copying remains poorly understood. Working comparatively across cultures and times, MB undertakes an examination of what this word means—historically, culturally, philosophically—and why it fills us with fear and fascination. He argues that the dominant legal-political structures that define copying today obscure much broader processes of imitation that have constituted human communities for ages and continue to shape various subcultures today. Drawing on contemporary art, music and film, the history of aesthetics, critical theory, and Buddhist philosophy and practice, In Praise of Copying seeks to show how and why copying works, what the sources of its power are, and the political stakes of renegotiating the way we value copying in the age of globalization.

You can read a blog devoted to In Praise of Copying here, with links to reviews, articles, and audio about the book and download a free pdf of the complete text of the book here. An excerpt from the first chapter of the book was published by Pop Matters. There's an account of the launch events here. Click on "Reviews" below for a full set of links to reviews and articles.

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MAMA

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November 15, 2009

MAMA was a club night that ran at Teranga, a Senegalese nightclub in Kensington Market in Toronto on the second Saturday of every month. from November 2009 to August 2010. "We create and/or connect to the global psychedelic dancehall, which equals kuduro, cumbia, dancehall, dabke, Touareg rock, house mutations from Toronto to Johannesberg, naija, dubstep, funky and other new vicious electronic styles. Plus revival sounds from disco to tropicalia to arabesques, as we see fit. MAMA equals Marcus, Andrew, Merike and Alex (also known as Dorian and Dorian), co-conspirators in the sound."  We stopped doing regular MAMA nights in Fall 2010 but may reappear from time to time when it feels right.  For dates and other details, see our Facebook page or take a look at the MAMA blog.

An Interview with David Sylvian concerning his new CD Manafon.

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The Manafon website

I recently interviewed David Sylvian about his remarkable new CD Manafon, which is about to be released.  This is the second time I've interviewed Sylvian -- the first time was after Blemish came out.  Aside from being an amazing singer and songwriter, I really like the candor and thoughtfulness of Sylvian's responses to questions, especially when talking about "spirituality".

Read article here.

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